Posts for September 19, 2012 -- Grub Street Chicago -- Restaurant News, Openings, Chefs

Posts for September 19, 2012

9/19/12 at 3:33 PM
Coffee
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Intelligentsia Brings Coffee Producers Together; Check It Out Friday

"Few coffee producers get to taste coffee from neighboring farms, other countries, or even their own coffee made properly," says Stephen Morrissey, director of marketing for Intelligentsia (and 2008 World Barista Champion). That's why Intelligentsia created the Extraordinary Coffee Workshop. The idea is to bring coffee producers together in one place to drink and talk coffee; there will be workshops on cupping and roasting, tours of both Intelligentsia and its neighbor Goose Island, and more. This is the 4th year Intelligentsia has put this event on, the previous ones taking place in Colombia, El Salvador and Los Angeles. How can you be part of it? Well, you can't, if you're not a coffee producer, with on exception: on Friday, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at all of Intelligentsia's locations, they'll be doing "Farm Friday," an event in which growers and roasters will have the opportunity to interact with customer, completing the chain that runs from farm to customer. To find an Intelligentsia location, go here.

9/19/12 at 2:00 PM on Grub Street NY
Other Magazines
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Saveur Puts All Its Covers Online

This month marks the 150th issue of Saveur, and to mark the occasion, the magazine's staff has put together a gallery of every single cover. Lotsa good food porn, in other words. [Saveur]

9/19/12 at 1:29 PM
Slideshow
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Slideshow: Join Jacques Torres For an Alsatian Peasant Dinner 40 Stories Up at Everest

By Michael Gebert

Tonight at Everest there will be a $500 dinner benefiting Share Our Strength with chef Jean Joho and guest chef Jacques Torres, legendary chocolatier who helped create our modern world of artisanal chocolate makers when he left his position as executive pastry chef at Le Cirque in New York to go out on his own in 2000. This isn't actually a promo for that event, since it's sold out, guaranteeing over $50,000 for Share Our Strength even before it gets to the auction items and so on. But last night Joho invited a small group for dinner with Torres, which at Torres' request wasn't a formal Everest meal but one of the most humble and traditional things served at Joho's now-closed Brasserie Jo— the classic Alsatian dish choucroute garni. Here's what it's like to eat peasant food with Jacques Torres, 40 floors above the financial district of Chicago.

9/19/12 at 12:50 PM on Grub Street NY
The Feeding Tube
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Top Chef’s New Season Debuts in November, Won’t Change Things Up Too Much

By Alan Sytsma

Get ready for a salmon battle!

Today, Bravo released all the official info about the new season of Top Chef, which will premiere November 7. It's the tenth season, and this year, the competition is headed to Seattle — Quick: Will fish-throwing at Pike Place Market happen in the first episode, or will they make us wait a few weeks? — and if you've seen any of the previous nine seasons, it sounds like you know what to expect.

9/19/12 at 11:30 AM on Grub Street LA
Crime Scenes
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California Chef Confesses to Cooking His Wife

By Hadley Tomicki

This went sour fast.

The murder trial of California chef David Viens took an even more horrible turn, as the L.A. Times releases details from two interviews the defendant gave to police in 2011 in which he admits to cooking his dead wife. Last week, the jury learned that Viens once joked to his daughter that he'd utilize his kitchen skills to cook a hypothetical body. Now it turns out that knee-slapper may be more truth than fiction. Viens says that he and his wife, Dawn, were drinking and doing some coke — as couples do — on October 18, 2009, when he taped her mouth and bound her arms and legs while having an argument, in order to prevent her from "driving around wasted." When he came to the next morning, she was dead.

9/19/12 at 11:19 AM
Top Chef
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Chrissy Camba of Bar Pastoral To Represent Chicago on Top Chef Seattle

By Michael Gebert

Bravo just released the names of the cheftestants for the next season of Top Chef, to be set in Seattle, and where last season was a Chicago chef-fest, this time there's only one: Chrissy Camba, most recently at Vincent but credited with the new job she just started, at Bar Pastoral. Shooting took place in July and August, according to Internet rumoring, which would pretty much coincide exactly with when Camba was vaguely "backpacking in Europe" before taking the Pastoral job; some of it is also said to be set in Alaska. In other quasi-news, there's a new judge with a name you've seen on frozen pizza: Wolfgang Puck. The new season will begin in November, and will reportedly include shouting, sulking, passive-aggressive behavior, at least one chef who nobody likes, dramatic music as chefs fidget in front of judges, running through Whole Foods, and sudden closeups of the logos of appliances.

9/19/12 at 10:18 AM
Social Media
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The Real Dish On How The Breakfast Queen Did, But Didn't, Turn Away Teachers

By Michael Gebert

Ina Pinkney

If you know anything about Ina Pinkney of Ina's, breakfast place and early pioneer on Randolph Street, it's that she's the generous earth mama of the local restaurant scene— Barry Sorkin of Smoque told us how, when he first opened having very few clues about the actual restaurant business, she called him out of the blue and educated him on the ins and outs of the local restaurant scene, who to call to get your hoods cleaned, that kind of thing. So the story should have been unbelievable, but it's the internet, so people will believe anything. And the story was that Ina had turned away striking teachers last Saturday because she was against the teachers' strike, and therefore SHE WAS THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD AND YOU SHOULD NEVER EVER EAT THERE. Mary Schmich has the real story in the Tribune, and it's a typical mix of half-truths and bitter irony.

9/19/12 at 9:55 AM on Grub Street NY
Choking Chick-fil-A
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Chick-fil-A Suddenly Very Wishy-Washy About Its Stance on Gay Marriage

By Alan Sytsma

Or does it?Photo: Sandy Mazza/Daily Breeze

So, there's a new development in the ongoing saga of Chick-fil-A's politics: A Chicago alderman that had previously opposed a Chick-fil-A location in the Windy City now says he's cool with the chain's plans after, according to the Chicago Tribune, it "agreed to include a statement of respect for all sexual orientations in an internal document and promised that its not-for-profit arm would not contribute money to groups that oppose gay marriage." So, does this mean the chicken chain will actually finally stop supporting groups that oppose same-sex marriage? Maybe, but they certainly aren't going to be the ones who come right out and say it.

9/19/12 at 9:10 AM
Nightlife
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Did Billy Dec Buy A Bar By Accident? Plus Help Him Concept It

By Michael Gebert

Or at least without telling his partners? That seemed to be the implication yesterday when Dec tweeted that he had just acquired River North's semi-venerable Martini Ranch, only to have partner Arturo Gomez tweet back "We did? Thanks for the heads up Jesus!" (We assume that was an expression and not an attempt to identify Dec with an actual deity. Yet.) From the name, you might think Dec was simply unable to resist owning everything with "ranch" in its name, but in fact the appeal was likely Martini Ranch's 4 a.m. license as well as a bit of personal history (he says he was a bouncer there when he was 21), and he plans to reconcept it— with your help! Go to Dec's blog and you'll see possible concepts like "Do a play on the dive bar kind of feel it has sort of become" and "Do a cool new taco bar concept my partner Arturo Gomez wants to do based on an old fav in his family's hometown in Mexico," as well as a place to insert your own concept (we're thinking something called Skanch). Get your party thinking cap on! [312DD]

9/19/12 at 8:00 AM on Grub Street NY
Video Feed
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Barack Obama Talks About His White House Homebrew

By Caroline Shin

The president stopped by the Late Show last night to talk with David Letterman and managed to discuss the beginnings of his now-famous White House Honey Ale. It all started with a beekeeper in Michelle's garden. In an attempt to share his own talents, one of Obama's staffers had volunteered his brewing skills. And, ever since the White House released the recipe, it's become a homebrewing mini-phenomenon.

The video, right this way.

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